1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to vacuum cleaners and, more particularly, to a mounting for a vacuum cleaner filter bag.
2. Description of Related Art
Paper filter bags have been mounted inside a cleaner housing for capturing dirt and dust entrained in the air flow from a dirt collecting nozzle. Typically, the dirty air is delivered by a conduit to an enclosed rigid housing or flexible bag in which the dirty air is directed. In some upright vacuum cleaners, the dirty air is drawn or forced through a rigid housing in which the air is filtered. In other upright vacuum cleaners, the dirty air is forced under pressure into a flexible cloth bag which filters the air. Disposable paper bags can be mounted to outlet tubes in the flexible cloth bags and the rigid housings to collect the dust and dirt. A typical filter bag has an aperture formed therein for receiving the dirt and dust from the working air channel. A cardboard collar typically surrounds the aperture. The collar may have a contoured configuration which is received in a suitable channel mounting secured to the housing of the vacuum cleaner. The channel mounting may be rotatable to seat the filter bag apertures over the dirty air. Examples of such bag mounting systems for upright vacuum cleaners are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,089,038, issued Feb. 18, 1992; U.S. Pat. No. 5,223,011, issued Jun. 29, 1993; U.S. Pat. No. 4,955,106, issued Sep. 11, 1990; U.S. Pat. No. 4,670,937, issued Jun. 9, 1987; U.S. Pat. No. 4,262,384, issued Apr. 21, 1981; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,539,026, issued Sep. 3, 1985. A similar bag-mounting system without a channel mounting is disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 3,683,599, issued Aug. 15, 1972.
Two significant problems in the upright vacuum cleaner bag mountings are the cost and complexity of the bag mounting system and the difficulty average consumers experience in properly installing the bag. A challenge faced by the industry is designing a cost-effective filter bag mounting which is intuitive to the customer for mounting the bag on the dirty air outlet housing and which can be quickly and easily installed by the average consumer. Several of the known prior art upright filter bag mounting systems are complex, relatively expensive to manufacture, are not intuitive to the customer or are not reliably alignable.